This invention relates to a display device such as a field emission display (hereinafter, referred to as FED) containing in an air tight vessel an electronic source formed of electronic emission elements arranged in a matrix.
The FED constitutes an air tight vessel by opposing a rear panel where electronic emission elements are arranged in a matrix and a display panel including a light transparent substrate having fluorescent materials of three primary colors (R, G, B) which emit light by collision of electrons from the electron emission elements. Since inside the air tight vessel, a vacuum atmosphere is present, in order that the vacuum vessel is not destroyed by the pressure difference between the inside and the outside, a plurality of support members (hereinafter, referred to as spacers) are arranged between the display panel and the rear panel. On the other hand, a conductive thin film called metal back is formed on the rear panel side of the fluorescent materials formed on the light transparent substrate to which acceleration voltage (anode voltage) for accelerating the electrons from the electron emission elements is applied. Such an FED configuration is disclosed, for example, in JP-A-2001-101965 (document 1), FIG. 21.
In the afore-mentioned FED configuration, when arranging the spacers, the metal back may be peeled off by the interference (physical contact) between the spacers and the metal back. The conventional technique for preventing this is disclosed, for example, in JP-A-7-282743 (document 2), FIG. 4, FIG. 6 and FIG. 7. According to this disclosure, on the areas where spacers are to be arranged, metal back is removed to expose the black stripes (black light absorbing layer) arranged between the fluorescent materials, so that the spacers are fixed on the black stripes.